Cute things

I'm going to tell you about all of the cute things both Paul & Adeline did this week...

...whilst rolling my eyes because Paul won't stay in bed at naptime and is shouting "open the doooor", hence waking Ada. Sheesh.

Paul tried to tell Ada "Guten Morgen" but doesn't say g, yet, so it came out "oot Mornin, Baby!" Evidently, English is just toddler German.

Ada smiled big, big at funny noises and then switched to pursed lips and an eyebrow raised at the same funny noise that was slightly louder. 

While I was away for a minute from Paul, he dragged his little, white rocking chair over to the sliding glass door, and I came back to find him watching the birds & squirrels, rocking.

Ada laughed! Big, silly grin laugh that meant true amusement - and we caught it on camera!

Paul started kissing whatever he hurts on me, Papa, or Baby but instead of a kiss noise, he says out loud "Muaaah".

Ada rolled! So, less cute, but still very exciting =) And right on the same schedule as Paul - neat!

While speaking of "on schedule", it was this week last year that Paul fell and knocked his tooth out. This year? He falls down Heidi's front stoop and busts his lip. The swelling's gone down a ton since then, but it still looks uncomfortable. This is smiling:

Oh, and he spelled! Sort of. He recognized which letter's we were saying, anyway, pointed to them and told us their colors. Neat! Also caught on camera.

Ada found her fingers and, instead of choosing one, tries to stuff the whole fist in her mouth.

Shy little Paul said "Buh-bye" to my whole catechism class of 7th graders, ha. They got a kick outta that. 

Ada woke early from nap (man!), and when I went in to her, one arm was free from the swaddle just flinging around, and she smiled at me. Stinker.

And I think that might be it for this week. In other news, we are exactly 2 weeks from sleeping in our new (to us) house in New Orleans. We have exactly 7% of the house packed up, and instead of packing more last weekend, we had friends over for a big pancake breakfast and went out to dinner with other friends on Saturday and then just relaxed on Mother's Day with Minnesota's Biggest Donut like we've got all the time in the world. Should probably do a little more this weekend... Oh, and since we have so much time on our hands, Ginny's been ever so kind as to online dress shop for me (a combo of two things I'm terrible at: online shopping and dress shopping) for Heather's wedding. I get a package in the mail next week, woo!

Also, can you handle all of this cute? (I know it's an Ada-heavy post, but others have more Paul, so it's ok.)

Here comes the sun!

And it certainly has been a long, cold, lonely winter, so bring it on!

We've eaten outside for lunch and/or dinner 4 different days this week, Adeline's shown that she does indeed approve of babywearing (only in the Björn, though), and we've taken walks both into town and to a friend's house. This week gets a thumbs-up!

Let's just not think too long or hard about the 2yo tantrums for giving him the pineapple that he requested, having to leave the construction site after an already 15min visit, or any number of other (to me) little things that don't quite fit into his idea of the-way-things-should-be. But he does like a good snack and spying on the neighbors:

Just to get a little glimpse into our routine ... Lately, our day's begun with Paul around 7am and Ada somewhere between 8:30-9:30. She takes 2 little 20-min catnaps before naptime at 1pm. (Yes, it's regularly been at the same time for both of them, yuussssss!) Paul gets up at 2:30, and she'll stay down til 4. Then there's dinner at 6 and bed at 8. Ada's been in bed within a few minutes of Paul, but he gets out of bed at least 3 times before calling it quits somewhere between 8:30-9pm. Mama & Papa are just having too much fun without him - doing dishes, folding clothes, internetting, or otherwise catching up on stuff. He did catch us having a glass of wine and ice cream one night, though, and that was pretty fun.

Dylan: It's duck-face and a selfie. Perfect.

Not too much on the moving front. Not too much on any front, really. Things are just winding down - Paul's Mama&Me class has just another day or two as well as my Wednesday 7th grade catechism class, and I already mentioned that Momtime is almost done, too. Seems a pretty appropriate time to have a shift, then, really. Except that summer in MN is beautiful ... this year made us wonder if it fully makes up for the 6-month winter, though; we concluded no, no it does not. The next wonder-ment, then, is if we're ready for the heat & humidity!

*Dear Lord, help me to not complain about the heat & humidity. At least this year.*

Oh! And again with the beans. Apparently I didn't read the last post, and we had red beans & rice for dinner on Thursday. Thursday night, you ask? Yeah, not good.

And now for the postpartum new 'do:

May already!

The weather. C'mon! The last days of April brought us a light dusting of snow as well as a couple of rough nights with Adeline, poor little gassy dear. (Note: no more beans for lunch.) The second of the rough nights was followed by a doozy of a day for me. Dylan and I were both so tired, he scooted out the door for work before we could have coffee ... and therefore I had no coffee. And learned that I may have a slight addiction. Headache. Foul mood. Paul suddenly became annoying, and Ada wouldn't eat (she must really dislike beans!). I had a pep-talk from good friend, Heidi, about all of us having "those days" every now and again and welcomed the freely-given "You're a great mom - you just need some sleep" spiel from Dylan when he got home.

Next day? Great! Same stinkin' ol' weather, but we got out of the house even earlier than on time (what what!), and both kiddos were in good spirits. Apparently Ada prefers tacos to beans on toast. I do, too, Ada. Atta girl.

Yes, I had a cuppa coffee that day.

Anyway, I was reminiscing about the days of "just 1", as I do when I feel overwhelmed by 2, and I noticed that I very closely watched Paul grow to 2 yrs. Everyone says, gosh it goes so fast. Or, where did the time go? Or, and then - bam - they're in high school. But I feel like I could give you a thousand specifics about any given thing regarding Paul's first 2 years. They were relatively slow-paced with, clearly, tons of 1-on-1 time. These last three months Gosh, it's gone so fast! Where did the time go? Bam - he's already in high school! Well, practically! All of a sudden, he's a little boy. With little boy mannerisms, preferences, opinions, and thoughts, however concisely voiced. It saddens me a little but is also exciting. What a strange thing.

Things are getting pretty real with the move, too. Dylan's been collecting boxes from the liquor store, and I think we have 2, maybe?, boxes of books packed. Woo! At this rate, we'll be in NOLA around Thanksgiving. I'm expecting that one of these days will put enough fire under me to just. get. going. and, like my Momma says, take things off the walls. Then it'll look like we're moving, and it'll be a constant in my mind ... rather than an "oh yeah, we're moving."

I've only got 3 Friday Momtimes left. I've enjoyed that and will miss it.

Cute, huh?

He is risen! He is risen, indeed, alleluia! Happy 3rd week of Easter! To celebrate, instead of going out, we're cooking a fancier than usual meal at home with ingredients we usually can't afford. We'll even break out the fine china again =). We may also have some especially delicious cookies. Paul and I decorated some more eggs this week, too. I realized that dyeing boiled eggs is great, but then you eat 'em. This time, I blew out raw eggs, and we dyed the empty shells to last the rest of the season.